UK Satellite Nets Space Junk

A British satellite has successfully deployed a net in orbit to demonstrate how to capture space debris. The event took place more than 300km above the Earth. It was part of a series of trials that will showcase different technologies to remove the redundant hardware now circling the Earth. Some 7,500 tonnes is said to be drifting aimlessly overhead, posing a collision hazard to operational missions. The aptly named RemoveDebris satellite took a video of its net experiment. The short sequence shows a small, shoebox-sized object tumbling end over end about 6-8m in front of the University of Surrey spacecraft. Suddenly, a bright web, fired from the satellite, comes into view. It extends outwards and smothers the box. “It worked just as we hoped it would,” said Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Surrey Space Centre. “The target was spinning like you would expect an uncooperative piece of junk to behave, but you can see clearly that the net captures it, and we’re very happy with the way the experiment went.” If this were a real capture, the net would be tethered to the deploying satellite, which would then tug the junk out of the sky. As this was just a demonstration, the net and the box (which was pushed out from RemoveDebris to act as a target) will be allowed to fall to Earth on their own. Their low altitude means it should take only a couple of months before they burn up in the atmosphere.

There has been much talk about the need to clean up space, but the Surrey satellite is the first to try out practical solutions. Shortly, RemoveDebris will test a new camera system to track space junk – again, on a target it has brought along for the experiment. Later, perhaps early in the New Year, there will be a demonstration of a harpoon that can snare junk. And finally, RemoveDebris will deploy a large membrane – what is termed a “drag sail”, which will brush against the high atmosphere and pull the whole mission into a destructive dive towards the planet.

There are now millions of discarded pieces of metal and other materials in orbit – everything from old rocket segments to accidentally dropped astronaut tools, even flecks of paint. The fear is that if we do not soon start taking this litter out of the sky, it will become a significant threat to active satellites. Alastair Wayman is an engineer with the aerospace giant Airbus, which is also involved in the RemoveDebris project. “If there are collisions, as there have been previously, then they will create lots of space debris. That debris then collides with more spacecraft, and you get even more space debris. It’s a kind of snowball effect,” he told BBC News. The issue of space junk is particularly pressing because some companies are in the planning stages of launching thousands of new satellites. Already there are calls for a tough new approach to licensing these spacecraft that would demand operators be able to bring down rapidly any of their hardware that fails in orbit.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790).

Dengue is a risk in many parts of Africa and the Middle East. Some countries are reporting increased numbers of cases of the disease. Travelers to Africa and the Middle East can protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites.

Dengue is a risk in many parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Some countries are reporting increased numbers of cases of the disease. Travelers to Asia and the Pacific Islands can protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites.

Yarrow

Exercise normal precautions in Norway. Read the Safety and Security section on the country information page. If you decide to travel to Norway: Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive travel alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency. Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter. Review the […]

THE FLAG OF SOUTH SUDAN: It was adopted in 2005, although the country became independent only in 2011. The flag bears striking similarities with both the flags of Sudan and Kenya. The horizontal black, white, red, and green bands of the flag share the same design as the Kenyan flag, and the Pan-African symbolism. Black represents the people of South Sudan; red, the blood that was shed for the independence of the country; green, the country’s agricultural, natural wealth,and land, as well as progress; white, South Sudan’s peace attained after many years of the liberation struggle; blue, the waters of the Nile River, a source of life for the country; and the yellow star, the unity of the states, hope, and determination for all people.

Agonoka Tortoise

NASA has awarded a $13.7 million contract to Advanced Space of Boulder, Colorado, to develop and operate a CubeSat mission to the same lunar orbit targeted for Gateway – an orbiting outpost astronauts will visit before descending to the surface of the Moon in a landing system as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

infinitusNow is your integrated digital marketing partner with strategic and creative solutions that help your business reach its fullest potential. We work in areas as diverse as search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing and digital marketing. Get a Free Analysis of your website.

PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA: Lingering Questions Follow an Escape.

ICHTHUS at Facebook

Archives

Archives

Categories

Categories

CHRISTIAN LOVE: This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience – it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive; it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen. 1 Corinthians 13: 4 – 8.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Enter Your Email Address Here

GOODREADS CURRENTLY READING: By Louis J. Cozolino. Publisher Norton, 2006. ISBN 0393704548. 447 pages. Louis Cozolino shows us how brains are highly social organisms. Balancing cogent explanation with instructive brain diagrams, he presents an atlas of sorts, illustrating how the architecture and development of brain systems from before birth through adulthood determine how we interact with others.

PROFILE: Creation is enthralling and mysterious, and the wisdom of God remains perennially unfathomable. To know Him is to barely understand His heart but to know myself. And despite the many regrettable mistakes that have been made, the sufficiency of His grace, faithfulness, and lovingkindness is deeply appreciated. My enriching journey with Him took me through the halls of national service (the army), auditing, cross-cultural missionary service, church work, mentoring, psychology, and caregiving. Although now in retirement, I am still very much a learner at heart and an avid reader, and despite the smudges in life, I love it. Eternity then becomes a lifelong expectation. Zheluo Cai